New toilet paper is recycled and brown, and that’s not QUITE as gross as it sounds

So if you were going to make a recycled toilet paper, would you make a huge deal about it being brown? Is that really the color that will evoke the most pleasant images when paired with the phrase “recycled toilet paper”? Is anyone even driving this marketing campaign?

Because no joke: This new toilet paper is called “Moka,” the press release they emailed us was all “omigod it’s way beige!!” and a Wall Street Journal article about the product had “brown” basically every third word. Look at this first line and try not to laugh:

When consumers see brown they think green, say companies that sell products like paper towels, napkins and diapers.

The idea is that consumers think that brown means unbleached which means more earth-friendly, even though post-consumer paper can now be whitened without chlorine bleach. But mainly haha brown diapers.

Anyway, this is all fairly dumb, which is why it’s being covered by places like Grist List and the Wall Street Journal and not so much by real journalists: